Fall of Warsaw

The Fall of Warsaw was the decisive battle of the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II. Two pincers of the German Wehrmacht from Pomerania and Czechoslovakia met up at Warsaw, forming a combined army of 175,000 troops, and the German army besieged the city of Warsaw, defended by 124,000 Polish Army troops under General Walerian Czuma. The Poles refused an offer by the Germans to surrender, and the Germans advanced into the city, with the Luftwaffe bombing the city center as German forces pushed into the city. Warsaw fell on 28 September 1939 after heavy fighting, and 18,000 Polish civilians were killed, while 140,000 Polish regular soldiers and volunteers were captured. Warsaw's fall effectively marked the defeat of Poland in the war, although the war would continue for another few days until the Battle of Kock ended all Polish resistance.